'Work together' after devastating job cuts in Wrexham

Sharp and First Milk blows will see more than 800 axed

DEVASTATING job blows will see hundreds of workers at Sharp Solar and First Milk axed – but hope remains that the solar industry will not be killed off in North Wales.

The Welsh Office said the UK and Welsh Governments must work together to support jobs in Wrexham after the double blow that affects more than 800 workers.

This has seen Sharp planning to axe 250 permanent staff while more than 300 agency staff are also affected. It comes after the plant was left “uncompetitive” after a 30% cut in the price of photovoltaic (PV) panels due to a glut of cheaper imports from China.

Union representatives will meet Sharp management on Thursday afternoon to discuss off-setting or

reducing redundancies, with the factory due to cease solar panel production in February.

That news was followed yesterday with confirmation that First Milk would close its cheese packing plant, putting 230 staff out of work.

The firm announced in October it was planning to shut its Maelor packing operation at Marchwiel, in May next year after losing a major contract from superstore giant Asda.

A spokesman yesterday confirmed that the closure will go ahead.

A Wales Office spokesman said the jobs news was “a timely reminder of the importance of our two Governments working together to retain jobs, promote business opportunities in Wales and to ensure our country remains a competitive place to do business”.

Wrexham Business Professionals said while the news was devastating for all affected it was due to wider market conditions and not a reflection on the plant or Wrexham itself.

Professor Stuart Irvine, Director of the Centre for Solar Energy Research, Glyndwr University, OpTIC, said the closure had come about because of the competition of cheaper Chinese imports which had decimated the European solar panel manufacturing industry.

But he added there was a future in the “value added” solar market with the centre currently involved in joint research with Sharp over developing these products.

He said: “Two years ago the price of solar panels started to fall due to imports from China and reductions in production costs. Sharp had also been able to reduce costs but like other European solar panel manufactures was still not able to compete with the Chinese on price.”

But he added: “While I don’t see a UK or European manufacturer able to compete head-on with China there are value added products that can be developed, this is not the end of PV in the UK.”

He said high end manufacture of products like building integrated and multi-functional PV could still create viable markets.

He said: “That research will continue and going forward Sharp could partner with us in production, although this would not be on the scale of the current production.”

A spokesman for the Department for Energy & Climate change said: “The Government has put in place an effective suite of financial incentives to support deployment of solar PV at all scales, from domestic installations through to utility scale, grid connected deployment.”

A spokeswoman from the British Photovoltaic Association, said: “We are naturally saddened to see Sharp closing down its UK manufacturing plant. Sharp has been an active and valued member of the British Photovoltaic Association and a strong player in the global solar PV market.

"This is bad news for the UK manufacturing sector and of course loss of so many jobs in Wrexham. Sharp is a respected name in the industry known for making high quality solar panels. Quality always comes at a price but due to market conditions all manufacturers have had to drop their prices which has resulted in losses. “

Speaking about the First Milk decision, Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones said: “It is a bitter blow, we had hoped some jobs would be saved.”

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The Editor

Mark Thomas

Liverpool-born Mark joined the Daily Post in January 2014 after seven years as editor of its Merseyside sister title the Liverpool Post. He started out as a weekly news reporter on Wirral Newspapers, and spent seven years at the Daily Post and Liverpool Echo. He was The Press Association's regional correspondent for North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire from 1983 to 1997, before returning to the ECHO as deputy news editor. He has won a number of journalism awards, including the UK Press Gazzette Regional Reporter of the Year award, and in 1993 wrote a book on the James Bulger murder.